Dithea
by Dinahleit
Summary: Dithea, a young Danish witch, is a new student at Hogwarts. She befriends Harry, Ron and Hermione, laughs at Draco and is always late for Snape's classes. Little does she know that a secret society of sinister wizards is on her tail...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Journey

Somewhere in Great Britain a meeting was iniciated. A group of hooded wizards entered a large dim-lighted room and seated themselves around a large oval table. They were all wearing simular dark robes with little sign of rank or position.

A bell sounded. Thirteen sinister strokes which ekkoed in the room.

One of the hooded wizards spoke:

"She is here."

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Dithea looked at her surroundings in the train station. "Nine-and-three-quarters?" she mused before returning her gaze to a small piece of paper she held in her hand.

'_Why does everything have to be so difficult?__'_ she thought with a sigh.

Dithea had never been to London before, Hell, she had never even been in England before! And even though she thought herself quite capable of finding her way to the train, she was sorry that neither of her parents had had the time to see her off. Well, finding the station hadn't been a problem, but that damned platform "Nine-and-three-quarters" was an entirely different matter.

In Denmark, where she came from, there hadn't been these kinds of obstacles getting to school. No stations, no missing or, for all she knew, non-existent platforms…besides there had never been so many muggles around to confuse her.

In her mind, she pictured the old ferry, which had brought her and the other students to Taageöen, where her old school was located. They had left the mainland in the evening, slept aboard the ferry and had awoken the next morning just as it arrived to the island. It had been perfect. Perfect! So _why_ had her father accepted that bloody job at the consulate? She remembered when he had first told her about it.

"It's a big chance for me, well, for _all_ of us," he explained.

The fact that it might be inconvenient for her hadn't even crossed his mind. It had been terrible for her, leaving her friends. Of course they had promised to write to her every so often, but it would never be the same. And what about the people at her new school, would they welcome her? Would she find any friends there? Or would they think of her as an outsider? _Oh, why couldn't we just have stayed home?_

Her chain of thought was suddenly broken by loud laughter coming from somewhere behind her. She turned around and for a second or two she thought she was seeing double, because two of the red-haired boys in front of her looked exactly alike. _'__Twins,'_ she thought. They were talking to another red-haired boy who was walking behind them with a dark-haired bloke with glasses, and a girl who seemed very annoyed with the twins. She opened her mouth to say something, but one of them beat her to it.

"Dear little bro, neither you or..."

"...your better half..."

"...has any authorisation over us anymore..."

"...not that you ever had, of course..."

_They are even finishing each others sentences_.

"...and if you don't mind...

"...we have things to do before the train leaves..."

"...customers to attend to..."

"...goods to sell..."

"...business, you know."

With these words they continued along platform nine, in what appeared to be very high spirits. Their brother on the other hand, looked a little offended.

"What did they mean _my better half_?" said the boy, complaining loudly.

The girl looked a little flushed but said, "Never mind, Ron, but do come along or we'll miss the train."

"Oi, Harry!" Ron turned to the boy by his side with a huge grin on his face "Remember second year, when we had to _fly_ to Hogwarts?"

"How could I possibly forget? That bloody tree nearly..."

Dithea stopped listening when she heard the magic word 'Hogwarts.' She took a step towards the trio and said, "Excuse me? I heard you were talking about Hogwarts just now, and I wondered…well, that is…could you tell me how to..."

"...get onto the platform," Harry interrupted and nodded. "I had the same problem on my first trip to Hogwarts," he explained.

"Just come with us and we'll show you," the girl said. "I'm Hermione Granger and these two are Ron Weasley and Harry Potter." They all looked at her expectantly.

Dithea merely smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Dithea Lund."

"Lund?" Ron studied her with a frown "That sounds strange. Come to think of it, you sound strange too."

But Dithea was not listening. She had just seen the twins disappear, just as they should have run into the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten. "What hap...how did they...?" she asked, rather ineloquently. Hermione explained to her that the barrier was the gateway to platform nine-and-three-quarters and that all she had to do was to run straight towards it. Ron and Harry demonstrated before it was her turn. _'__Here goes nothing,' _she thought to herself before running towards the barrier. For a moment a claustrophobic feeling overwhelmed her, as she felt the bricks surround her. Then all of a sudden it was over and she landed on the other side where a long steam engine was waiting for hundreds of students to get onto it.

'_How retro_ …' she thought

Hermione soon appeared behind her and began to drag her along through the crowd. "Let's find the boys," she said as they headed towards the train.

They found Harry and Ron in one of the compartments near the back of the train. They were in the middle of a conversation with another boy, who was introduced as Neville Longbottom. Their conversation stopped when the girls entered the compartment.

"So...um...where do come from?" Harry asked.

"Denmark," she replied. "My dad got a job at the consulate here."

"Denmark?" Ron said excitedly, "So, do you really have mermaids there?"

Dithea nodded, "Certainly we have, although you rarely see them. Come to think of it, we had a few at Taageöen."

"Wicked!"

"Toveoien?" Neville asked sounding a little confused.

"Oh, that's where my old school is. It means something like Fog Island."

"Sounds dodgy," Harry remarked.

"Well it is, especially during the winter. It's called Fog Island because it's surrounded by a impenetrable, dense fog to keep fishermen and other muggles away," she explained.

"Wait a minute," Ron said, interrupting her. "If it's surrounded by fog, then how do _you_ get there?"

"With the Old Ferry. The captain aboard is blind, but he finds his way through the fog anyways."

Ron stared, "Amazing! How do you think he does it?"

"Ever heard of magic, Ron?" Hermione said sarcastically. This started an argument, which lasted for quite some time. But by the looks on Harry and Neville's faces Dithea could tell that this was normal to them, and something that occurred pretty regularly.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and quite peaceful. Dithea's new friends told her just about everything she should know about Hogwarts; everything about the teachers, ghosts, who to avoid…

"Pretty much everyone from Slytherin should be avoided. Nasty buggers, the whole lot of them," Ron said. "Especially Draco Malfoy," he spat with a look of fierce intensity on his face. Dithea couldn't help but giggle at the sound of it.

"Draco? Is that his _real_ name?" she asked. The others nodded, surprised by her amusement. "What does he look like? Is he sort of pale with dark hair and red eyes?"

Harry shook his head, "He _is_ pale, but he's got blond hair and grey eyes."

"Pity!" she sighed. "Otherwise we could have called him Dracul and slipped garlic into his food." They all laughed at the idea, though Ron said he liked the method with the wooden stake better.

"Hold on!" she said. A terrible and horrifying thought had just occurred to her. "What if _I_ get sorted into Slytherin?!"

Hermione shook her head in a knowing way "You're too nice for that."

"You really think so?" Dithea asked as she looked around at the others.

"_Way_ too nice!" Ron agreed.

Dithea smiled and relaxed so she could enjoy her ride. Who knew, maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all…


	2. Chapter 2

**Witchgirl:** Thank you, sorry for the delay, I've been kind of busy lately - sigh - I hope you like the new chapter :)

Chapter Two: Coming to Hogwarts

Dithea shared a carriage, with Neville and an odd-looking girl, to the castle. The girl turned out to be a certain Luna Lovegood and she asked her the weirdest questions, such as:

"Don't you find it hard to fly on ladders instead of broomsticks?" and "Was it nice to live in a tree?"

Dithea of course had no idea what she was talking about and when she later mentioned it to Hermione, she told her that Luna Lovegood was as famous for her odd ways as Harry Potter was for his scar, not that she knew what that meant.

Neville on the other hand talked a great deal about plants. His whole demeanour seemed to radiate enthusiasm when he spoke about that subject. Dithea, who had thought him rather slow in the beginning, found that she had to change her opinion of him. As herbology hadn't exactly been her favourite subject back home, she was unfortunately unable to satisfy his curiosity on the subject of strange plants from her homeland.

"Why aren't you blond?" Luna suddenly interrupted, while she looked at Dithea with her strange eyes, which never seemed to blink.

"Excuse me?" said Dithea, rather taken aback.

"Blond!" Luna exclaimed and pointed at Dithea's hair with an accusing finger. "You're a Scandinavian, aren't you?"

"Well, yes..." she said hesitatingly and began to play with a lock of her hair.

It had the same colour as mahogany, just like her eyes.

"But you see, that doesn't necessarily mean that I _have to_ be blond or have blue eyes, for that matter. A lot has happened since the Viking age, you know, and we're quite a mixed lot now, just as you yourselves are." She pointed out.

Here Neville chose to break in: "But Luna is right, I mean, you've got dark hair and brown eyes. You look more like an Italian than a Dane."

She sighed impatiently. After all, she had heard this so many times before. Every time she was on holiday somewhere in southern Europe, people would come up to her and start talking to her in their own language, assuming that she was one of them and when she had kindly explained to them that she was in fact Danish, they had thought she was joking. A bit annoying really. She pushed the recollection away and smiled at the two in front of her.

There was a distinct twinkle in her eye when she said: "I suppose it must be the gypsy blood in me."

When Diane finally got to see Hogwarts, she was absolutely speechless. It was much _much_ larger and considerably more impressive than the sixteen-century manor on Taageöen. She stood in front of it, gaping, for several minutes, before Neville saw fit to push her in the direction of the entrance. Here she was received by a strict looking witch, who introduced herself as professor McGonagall.

"We have just got time to sort you before the first-years arrive, so if you'll follow me..."

The professor lead her up some stairs and into a small room, which only contained a chair with an old hat on top of it. Professor McGonagall lifted the hat from the chair and said:

"If you will sit down, I will place the sorting hat on your head and it will sort you into the house to which you belong. I expect you have heard of them?"

Diane nodded "Yes, professor." Hermione had told her about them on the train.

As soon as the hat touched her head, she heard a strange, raspy voice.

"Ah! Miss Lund! Let me see now...Intelligent? Yes, good, good...and ambitious too. Slytherin would be a possibility, but there's courage there to consider as well...Hm..."

Diane held her breath as she heard the dreaded word _Slytherin_. She closed her eyes.

_Put me in Gryffindor, _she thought.

"Gryffindor? Well..." The hat seemed to think it over.

_Please!_

"Why are you all so keen on becoming Gryffindors?"

The hat seemed a bit annoyed.

_Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor, _she chanted.

"Oh, alright!" it gave in. "GRYFFINDOR!"

She opened her eyes, with a sigh of relief, and looked up into the face of a very pleased professor.

When she was finally ushered into the Great Hall, the noise nearly overturned her. Most of the students had already found their seats, and were talking animatedly with their friends about what had happened during the holiday. Nevertheless, she still managed to bump into someone, on her way to the Gryffindor table.

"Look where you're going!" that someone hissed.

"Sorry," she mumbled and looked up into a face, she would have called handsome, if it hadn't been for the fact that it was dominated by a malicious sneer.

An involuntary blush crept over her face. The cold grey eyes looked her over for a moment. The sneer transformed itself into a smirk and the guy tuned towards two largely build figures by his side.

"See! They can't keep their hands off me," the boy said smugly and sighed theatrically "sometimes it's _such_ a burden, being this good-looking."

Dithea, who found this kind of self-importance ridiculously funny, burst out into a fit of laughter and hurried on towards the Gryffindor table.

_Good Lord! It isn't as if he's bloody Adonis or anything!_

She was still giggling when she reached the trio. Ron, who had his mouth full of candy, he had bought on the train, managed to ask:

"Wha' sho fummy?"

"Ew, Ron! That's disgusting! Really! You're going to make yourself sick!" Hermione expostulated.

"Mo, I'm mot!"

"Yes you are! We'll be having dinner in only a few moments!"

"Sho wha'?"

Hermione shook her head. "I give up..."

Harry, who had padded Ron on the back, turned towards Dithea and repeated Ron's question.

"So, what's so funny?"

She waved a hand in the direction of the Slytherin table.

"I just ran into the most conceited, self-important, stuck up guy, I've ever meet in my life."

Hermione raised her eyebrows and shared significant looks with the two others.

"Sounds like Malfoy," Harry said.

The others nodded.

"Malfoy? As in _Draco_ Malfoy?" Dithea started laughing again. "How can you possibly take that guy serious?"

At that moment the doors to the great hall opened, all the first-years entered and the sorting started.

"I totally forgot," Hermione whispered "I assume you got sorted into Gryffindor? Congratulations!"

Dithea nodded and smiled, while Harry and Ron gave her thumbs-up.

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"Is Harry famous for his scar?" Dithea asked rather puzzled

"Whatever for? I mean, _I_ have a scar. Right here, under my left eyebrow, see?" she tilted her head to the right, but Hermione didn't look at it.

"You _don't know_?"

Hermione looked as if an alien from some distant solar system had suddenly descended upon her. Well, to tell the truth, she would probably have looked more composed if _that _had, indeed, been the case.

"No"

The new Gryffindor studied Hermione's dumbstruck expression with a great deal of amusement in her eyes, but when she was told about the Dark Lord and his attack on Harry, her smile faded.

"But that's terrible!" she exclaimed.

"Did you really never hear of this before?" Hermione looked as if she still found it hard to believe.

Dithea shook her head. No, she had never heard of it before. Then she began to wonder if her parents knew.

_Dad is bound to know. Now__ that he works at the consulate... I'll write and ask him._

**Please please review!! I need to know what you think, to make it better :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: The Rumour

_Dear Mum and Dad_

_As this is my first letter written at Hogwarts, I should probably begin by telling you that I arrived here safely, though I _did_ have a little trouble finding the right platform in London. Never mind that, I got help from some of the other 'kids', two boys and a girl. You might have heard of at least one of them. They're Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Actually, I've become great friends with them. Oh, and I've been sorted into Gryffindor, which is their house, by the way. That means I'm brave. Yeah, I know, who would have thought it? So far classes have been fine, except for potions, where I couldn't help laughing at the teacher, so I lost some house points. Ron said, I was lucky not to get a detention and I guess, I was. Please don't get angry with me. If you could meet professor Snape, I'm sure you would understand me, but I'm afraid that a proper explanation is impossible in letterform. He has to be experienced, live._

_Now for the serious part. Do you know about this Voldemort type? Dark Lord and all that? I've only just heard about him myself and he seems pretty important. Everyone practically jumps when I ask them about him. They don't like it when I say his name, for some reason or other. Harry and Hermione are the only ones here who use it, you know. They said, he was a pretty big problem in the late 70's, I mean _really_ big, so I just wondered why we've never heard of him at home?_

_Well, I just thought you might explain it to me._

_I hope you're both well and settled._

_Kisses and all_

_Di_

Dithea looked the letter through one last time before she sealed it and ran up to the owlery. Her first week at Hogwarts had passed quickly in a whirl of activities and impressions. She felt at ease in Gryffindor and got along with nearly all of them. Well, The Creevy brothers were a bit annoying sometimes, but all in all she was pretty content. Her fellow Gryffindors had been invaluable guides, when she had to find her way round the huge castle. She still had to get used to the staircases shifting places. They had more than once been the reason why she had been late for classes. Professor Snape didn't appreciate this but oddly enough he hadn't even punished her with detention yet.

Ron marvelled at the fact.

"It's amazing! How do you get away with it?" he asked after a particular trying potionlesson.

"With what?" she asked

"Oh, come on! Arriving late for classes, laughing at Snape, the slimey git...I mean, if it had been me, he would have expelled me long ago!"

Dithea shrugged.

"How should I know? Maybe he isn't such a git after all"

"Yeah, he is" Harry intervened "but there's no denying it. He treats you as if you were in slytherin or something."

Dithea blushed as she remembered the sorting hats first choice for her.

"Maybe he's just trying to be nice" she ventured "you know...seeing as I'm new here and all"

"Nah ah" Ron shaked his head "Not him." Suddenly his eyes went wide open, as if some horrific idea had presented itself to him.

"Bloody blodgers! What if he fancies you!"

"Ew, Ron! What are you on about? That's disgusting!" Hermione exclaimed. For the first time lifting her head from her homework.

"I know, but think about it" he said "Di is almost always late, she laughs at him, doesn't get the potions right and so far he's only taken a few points from Gryffindor beacuse of her. I mean...Harry has only to look at Snape and then it's detention every night for a week!"

Hermione looked at Dithea in a worried way, taking in her appearence. Harry also turned and looked at her.

"Come on, stop it" all of the sudden she grew very selfconcious.

"Well, you're not exactly bad looking" Harry said, considering her figure.

She blushed.

"Thanks, I suppose," she had never been any good at receiving compliments "but don't you think he would prefer someone in his own house...like that Parkinson-girl or someone like that. She's a lot prettier too."

Hermione sniffed.

Harry shook his head.

"She whines too much" was Ron's reply.

Dithea couldn't believe it. Snape couldn't possibly have a crush on her_. No way_. It was ridiculous. The man was twice her age for heavens sake. Unfortunately it wasn't only the trio who had noticed. The slytherins seemed to have too. Parkinson had sneered at her, calling her the teacher's pet, while passing her in a hallway. Bullstrode seemed to bump into her all too often, leaving Dithea with bruises from the encounter. She had even heard Malfoy say something about her being old Snape's sexdoll. She had blushed fearsly at the thought_. How dared they?_ She knew there would always be a lot of gossip around on a school like this, but she had never thought that she would ever have to be the victim of it.

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She was sitting alone by the lake, brushing her fingers over a copy of 'Hogwart's history' that she had borrowed from Hermione . It had been weeks and she still hadn't heard from her father. It worried her a bit. But then again, he was probably busy. As usual. It had always annoyed her, her father's addiction to his work. She had always felt like it as taking him away from her. She sighed and looked back at the school. She really ought to get back or she would miss dinner.

"Well well, what have we here?"

Malfoy was strolling towards her along the shore of the lake, hands in his pokets.

"If it isn't Snape's little..."

"Snape's what?!" She interrupted impatently.

Malfoy cocked an eyebrow and smirked. Leaving her question unanswered as he looked her over.

"I always thought he prefered blondes"

"Well maybe he does" she shot at him, before getting up and walking towards the castle. She wasn't going to let him continue this conversation.

He followed her, the annoying prat.

"Then there must be some other reason" he said "maybe you have some hidden qualities" Draco looked over her body suggestivly.

"Snap out of it will you? Professor Snape is my teacher, nothing more!"

With these words she stormed into the castle and missed Draco's answer.

She joined the trio at the Gryffindor table. Ron was as always stuffing his face full of food.

"Wher've u bing?"

"Huh?" She looked on in amazement as he swallowed the huge amount af turkey.

"Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you"

"Oh...er...outside...needed air, you know" she noticed Malfoy enter the great hall. He sent a smirk in her direction. _Annoying bastard._

"Is something wrong?" Harry said, following her gaze and

"Malfoy? Did he do something to you?"

"I suppose you could say that he was being himself" she answered.

"That bad huh?" Ron threw a dirty look towards the blond before he took another bite.

"Why does everyone think I'm having an affair with Snape?" she asked

"Hush!" Hermione warned "He's coming this way!"

Snape came walking towards them and as he past, he glanced at Dithea, with an irritated glint in his eyes.

She exhailed and looked triumpantly at the others.

"Did you see that? He couldn't possibly fancy me!"

Ron shrugged as if it didn't mean a thing.

"Then why is he so nice to you all the time?"

Dithea looked offended and exclaimed:

"He isn't nice! He's just less..less..." she tried to find the right word "...less mean!"

"Exactly!" said Harry

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**So what do you think? Review please :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Stalker

A pair of eyes followed Dithea as she went out of the great hall after dinner. He sighed. His task would have been so much easier, had she been sorted into his house. Then he would have been able to befriend her without any difficulties. As it was, she pretty much ignored him, when she got the chance, prancing about with that Potter-boy and his lot. No matter. He still had until christmas. There was still time. Time for him to get to her. Time for her to trust him. Time for him to _take_ her. Oh yes, there was still plenty of time...

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"So you are muggleborn as well!" Hermione seemed surprised

"Yes, well, my grandmother was a witch. I don't remember much about her, but she was the one who discovered that I had magic abilities."

"What did you do?" Ron asked, looking up from the game of chess, he was playing with Harry.

"I turned on the lights in the entire house, from my bed, because I was afraid of the dark. Every night for a whole month. My parents didn't know what was going on. They thought that there was something wrong with the electricity. Then my grandmother came for a visit. She knew right away and told them about the magic world. My mother hadn't known anything about it until then."

"Didn't she know that her mother was a witch?" Ron asked wide-eyed.

Dithea shook her head

"No, I don't know why my grandmother kept it a secret, I have sometimes wondered if it's because my mum is a squib...but I don't know. I was seven when she died. My grandmother, that is."

Dithea tried to remember her grandmother. Her dark eyes and curly black hair. That was all. No there was more. What was it, she had told her? _Stay away from the dark, stay away from __**them**__, child._

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_She ran down the corridor. He was after her. She couldn't see him, but she __knew that he was there. Sweat formed on her brow as she turned a corner and headed towards the stairs. Her heart was beating at double speed, pounding in her chest. She had the feeling that he was right behind her. She ran faster, almost falling down the stairs. She could hear him breath nearby. An oddly calm sound. She heard quiet words whispered and felt a hand on her shoulder. He made her stop. She turned around and saw..._

Dithea woke up, gasping for air. Her sheets where soaked in her sweat.

_Ew..._

She quickly got up and walked towards the bathroom. The sun was rising in the east, casting a cold light through the castle windows. She trembled as she thought of the dream. She never got to see who followed her. His face had been covered in shadows.

She took a deep breath and smiled halfheartedly at her own reflection. After all, it had just been a nightmare, hadn't it? A stupid, insignificant, little nightmare. Nothing to worry about at all.

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When Dithea sat down for breakfast in the great hall, she had the oddest notion that someone was watching her. She looked around and found that quite a few number of people were watching her. Draco from the Slytherin table was one. He gave her his signature smirk and let his eyes travel towards the teachers in a suggestive manner. Here she found that Snape was looking down his nose at her, but without his usual frown. A slight blush crept over her face. Next to him a thoughtful headmaster seemed to consider her, through his halfmoon glasses.

_What is wrong with __everbody all of a sudden?_

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A short, but important chapter.

Guess who the stalker is? Muwhahaha...I'm not revealing it (just yet)


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